How to Use xylem in a Sentence

xylem

noun
  • Once in, the mistletoe squeezes its way around the host cells toward the tree’s plumbing, the xylem.
    — Rachel Ehrenberg, Smithsonian Magazine, 23 Dec. 2020
  • The strands, known as xylem, are tubes that carry water from the roots of a tree to its branches and leaves.
    — Brigit Katz, Smithsonian, 26 Oct. 2017
  • New xylem grow in rings at the periphery of the trunk just behind the bark, adding girth so the tree can get taller.
    — Dennis Normile, Science | AAAS, 23 Oct. 2017
  • The xylem helps to transport water, while the phloem helps move nutrients and sugars.
    — Monica Cull, Discover Magazine, 21 Oct. 2022
  • The stems, branches and larger roots of these plants are reinforced with wood produced from secondary xylem.
    — Tim MacWelch, Outdoor Life, 19 Mar. 2021
  • Towering redwoods and lanky jungle vines hoist water from the soil to their lofty leaves through a tubelike tissue called the xylem.
    — Elise Cutts, Scientific American, 18 Jan. 2023
  • Drinking xylem would be a bit like drinking a 2-by-4 or as one of our staff more accurately opined, drinking your straw!
    — Paul Cappiello, The Courier-Journal, 14 May 2021
  • The trunk is a single cylindrical shaft made up of hundreds of woody strands called xylem, which conduct water from the roots to the branches and leaves.
    — Dennis Normile, Science | AAAS, 23 Oct. 2017
  • Some think immature cicadas, called nymphs, measure the 17-year time underground through the sap in a tree’s xylem.
    — Ross Kenneth Urken, Scientific American, 14 June 2021
  • Around the edges ran thick, vertical strands containing xylem, the tubelike structures that carry water through many plants.
    — Daisy Yuhas, Scientific American, 1 Jan. 2018
  • In theory, this keeps air from entering the water-carrying xylem tubes inside the flower stem.
    — Jeff Lowenfels, Alaska Dispatch News, 4 Aug. 2017
  • Even so, this activity damages the xylem, the water-transport tissues that keep the tree’s canopy hydrated.
    — Miri Talabac, Baltimore Sun, 13 Oct. 2022
  • Sugars are transported up into the branches of trees traveling through the xylem in the springtime, not the phloem which is their normal pathway.
    — Jeff Lowenfels, Anchorage Daily News, 14 May 2020
  • As the cladoxylopsids grew, these columns of xylem split themselves apart—most likely to supply water to the expanding plant.
    — Daisy Yuhas, Scientific American, 1 Jan. 2018
  • If the tree is still creating foliage, then water and nutrients are being transported from the roots to the tree canopy, so the phloem and xylem are still functional.
    — oregonlive, 9 Feb. 2020
  • These creatures use their sharp teeth to gnaw and strip the bark and the soft layers directly underneath (the xylem and phloem), which are used to transport water and nutrients.
    — Andy Wilcox, Better Homes & Gardens, 3 Nov. 2025
  • As water travels through the plants’ xylem tubes, which help keep them hydrated, air bubbles will form and explode, generating small vibrations.
    — Katherine J. Wu, Smithsonian, 2 Dec. 2019
  • Maple sap flows through the tree’s water-transport system, called the xylem, inside minuscule vertical tubes about a thousandth of an inch in diameter.
    — Helen Czerski, WSJ, 21 Mar. 2018
  • The bacteria start in the leaf-tips and work their way into the trunks, blocking the xylem (the water-carrying arteries) and preventing the trees from absorbing water.
    — The Economist, 21 Sep. 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'xylem.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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